Brian Moriarty ─ The Secret of Psalm 46

"First presented on 23 March 2002 at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. It was accompanied by a digital video of a total solar eclipse, synchronized to a harpsichord recording of J.S. Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, 1751).
A slightly revised version was presented at Worcester Polytech on 18 January 2007.
On 23 May 2011, the Drama Society at the University of York (UK) presented Hamish Todd's The Name of the Power That Moves You, a play based on this lecture.
Below is a February 2010 studio recording of the lecture, produced for inclusion in Jonathan Blow's game The Witness. It employs an excellent modeled piano by Modartt instead of a harpsichord."
Source and transcription : ludix.com/moriarty/psalm46.html
I don't own the right to this sound.

[@internetsurvivor]

don't mind me, just tryin to get this candle across this emptied pool

[@leefisher6366]

But the lighter is in your pocket, you silly man! If I were you, I'd stop trying. In fact, as Gangaji once said, simply stop looking.

[@nintendude794]

How… nostalgic.

[@nintendude794]

Alternative comment: it’s lit, fam.

[@Psilomyde]

What does this mean?

[@chao3948]

oh look its the boards of canada album i almost listened to instead of geogaddi

[@choczynski]

Time to share this with everyone I know for the eclipse

[@Crimsin19937]

Dude, same!

[@camcan1243]

one of my favorite secrets in gaming history , The Witness

[@cooldoom5675]

best hour i ever stood still 10/10

[@Marcifar]

The Witness brought me here ;)

[@Moathib]

+Marcifar Enjoy this game, it is awesome !!

[@TheMegaSackman]

+Marcifar Brought me too. Fantastic speech.

[@jsrodman]

Kind of amazing that the lecture talks about Atari Adventure, the works of Shakespeare, JS Bach, the King James Bible, the mental pit of numerology, and the hugely attention holding book (for a time) the Maquerade. But the youtube comments are all about an unimportant videogame that just used the recording in an annoying way.

[@aimeedahl6468]

一个游戏制作者对游戏的愿望与期待，希望游戏不再是剥削的一种工具，而真正成为文化的一种载体，出一个影响世界的一份作品。

[@QwertyGuy499]

Goddamnit, Blow.

[@AllironTalks]

My favorite part is the transcription both on the link and from youtube say "Catherine of Aragon" when he ABSOLUTELY says "Catherine of Aragorn"

[@chao3948]

omg i love your videos so much also why is finding a youtuber in a comment section so weird

[@hyperTorless]

Jesus that was so good, thanks for posting it.

[@bluelotusshala]

OMG!!! TY!! That was Awesome!!! Lol!! I woke up this morning thinking about a book I stumbled across in college, something about a treasure hunt and a rabbit, which lead me to this!!! Truly awesome and beautifully done!! And, in the year of the Rabbit 🐇…. Hmmm is this a sign?!! Thanks again!!

[@mindquest1]

Psalms 46 is the 666th chapter from the end of the Bible. It is the 666th page of actual printed content of the 1611 King James Version of the Holy Bible. There are 111 words between 'shake' and 'spear'. In the 1611 King James bible, the serpent said exactly 46 words to Eve (Genesis Chapter 3)

[@typo691]

Damn. This is just overwhelming.

[@korenn9381]

numerology will solve everything.

[@frettchen1498]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXmmeXivoLqrhpY

[@WalterSamuels]

So the Catholic church hired Francis Bacon to write Shakespeare? What other conclusions are there?

[@dazzlepecs]

The kings James bible is a translation though, its not 1-1 with the original Aramaic

[@ShovelShovel]

lol if you miss the end point after listening for an hour.

[@VaustXIII]

What's the end point?

[@alexm.2960]

@@VaustXIII "...Bach wrote all of his great masterpieces sub species aeternitatis, under the aspect of ETERNITY. He did not compose only to please his sponsors or to win the approval of an audience. His work was his worship..." "...The name of the power that moves you is not important. What is important is that you are moved. Awe, is the foundation of religion. No other motivation can free you from the limits of personal achievement. Nothing else can teach you the art of flight..." The end point: "...I am the keeper of the jewel of masquerade. Waiting for you, or ETERNITY."

[@fernandofaria2872]

@@alexm.2960 i think he is refering to the 1 hour puzzle in the game, since you HAVE to wait 1 hour to complete it.

[@alexm.2960]

@@fernandofaria2872 This speech was first given in the year 2002.

[@fernandofaria2872]

@@alexm.2960 i know :/

[@Menkhor]

This is an absolutely brilliant speech.. I don't even know where to begin. This... it's... it's just too much right now. I need time to digest; but I feel like I'm going to have to write a dissertation on this shit! -_-

[@joshuahelmeke]

It's the shiz-nit in the BEST way possible: pure paradigm shift...WOW!

[@antoniorossi1441]

ECCELLENTE!!!!!

[@georged8644]

Just imagine what William Shakespeare could have produced with the Infocom engine.

[@franklinlau4143]

Find here from gamecores, really faithful in DVG industry

[@user-wp8gh6jq2z]

respect

[@ArcadeReplay]

RESPECT Brian Moriarty GUYS. he wrote this. He designed and contributed to some of the greatest games ever created, like LOOM or THE DIG and so on...

[@getstuckin3302]

Hello @Moathib, I want to add closed captions for another language for this video. can you comment below whether you'll be open to that and from where I can deliver you the full translation with timestamps. Thank you for sharing this, very inspirational, hard to find.

[@user-tc3bl5vk9c]

Awe!

[@saityavuz76]

I bet he watched the solar eclipse this year.

[@sierradeltaNL]

@Patrick Critz proof or didnt happen

[@tyrannicide3395]

@@sierradeltaNL He actually did it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eH3CaX98rpJ4q9E And prepare yourself for an equally amazing talk.

[@catninja909]

This game is amazing, I just finished all the lasers but I havent gone up the mountain yet and i just found this room, really good shit💞

[@PabloPerroPerro]

There's no way you unlocked this videolog without going up the mountain and beating the challenge

[@heet6612]

@@PabloPerroPerro You can if you are terrible at understanding from where to start and end in the theater or even cheat your way.

[@brunodesouza8032]

@@PabloPerroPerro She didn't tell she unlocked this video. You are assuming this. Your mind is limited.

[@PabloPerroPerro]

@@brunodesouza8032 Nope, I said she didn't unlock it. Therefore she's watching a spoiler on YT.

[@ripurutheman4082]

@@brunodesouza8032 but... but... how would she know this video was in the game if she never unlocked it?

[@corpusc]

the same Brian M. that worked at Infocom right?

[@corpusc]

yes

[@ButRedman]

LECTURE MAAAAAAAAAN

[@wagesofsinn3881]

Has anyone ever bothered to check and see if there was a secret message hidden within this speech?

[@putinstea]

I assuming there are at least two or three but I can't be arsed tbh

[@MalicProductions]

The first sentence is 14 words long, a nod to Bach maybe?

[@leefisher6366]

Well, there's an environmental 'Obelisk' puzzle in it: that's good enough for me.

[@oscarsalesgirl296]

I would check the jewmatria of all the words at the beginning anecdote about the store

[@oscarsalesgirl296]

“Someday soon, perhaps even in our lifetime, a game design will appear that will flash across our culture like lightning. It will be easy to recognize. It will be generous, giddy with exuberant inventiveness. Scholars will pick it apart for decades, perhaps centuries.“ Fortnite. That game was Fortnite.

[@ericchdjdjnx]

'something AWful' even got that part right!

[@r.w.9631]

No it wasn't

[@OriionCygnus]

It was Undertale

[@HAL_NlNETH0USAND]

Did Moriarty himself find the rabbit jewel?

[@ariztrad]

Tsvetan Tsvetkov no it was some guy and ppl said he was in kahoots with the author of the masquerade or something

[@HAL_NlNETH0USAND]

@@ariztrad Oh that's sad. Thanks for the reply.

[@serpentax]

@@ariztrad he was in kahoots with the author's ex girlfriend.

[@MrTeddyhead]

The words "which lies" ... "safe inside me" seem to have been seamlessly omitted from the last sentence. (That's a little odd, don't you think?)

[@MrTeddyhead]

The "source" audio track is roughly 30 seconds longer than this version. I wonder...

[@MrTeddyhead]

Another thing that was omitted was the quote from King Lear: "Angler[s] in a lake of darkness.” (Lear III.6.) * Then instead of Portland, in this version Moriarty spoke of Seattle. [factual error] * And instead of Reverend James Wilmot, he spoke of James Wolcott (?). [factual/pronunciation error]

[@MrTeddyhead]

Moathib Was this version of the lecture originally published in that same webpage ( ludix.com/moriarty/psalm46.html )?

[@RobertHildebrandt]

41:19 "wormhole?" Then there are surely time-traveler theories out there.

[@QueenbeeTTV]

bro

[@omniknight8349]

now I'm really tryna get this game poppin

[@randomkanalis]

54:25 This part made me lose my mind

[@747-q2c]

1 hour

[@raystargazer7468]

It's Catherine of Aragon, not Aragorn xD ...

[@culaccinomarble5195]

机核来的。

[@BunkerFox]

This talk reminds me of a quote by Shakespeare "It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing."

[@ZiTRiiK]

Why soo long? 57min of puzzle?

[@Moathib]

+Aleix Bueso Because he has many things to say

[@AgentMidnight]

+Aleix Bueso Braid had a puzzle that took 2 hours to solve. I guess its just Jonathan Blow's thing to have one really long puzzle in each of his games.

[@anthonyarends4202]

+Cubik you don't have to watch or even wait

[@La0bouchere]

+Anthony Arends I think they are referring to a hidden puzzle in the witness that can only be solved if you wait for this entire video to end.

[@anthonyarends4202]

Yeah, a puzzle that you can fast forward or rewind

[@megatonante]

The only thing of interest is the hare story which I did not know. But I fail to see the connection between hidden things and the eclipse and game design. The last segment too, which refers to the Masquerade author hiding the hare, is put at the end without reason for me. How does that make a point? The whole 'awe' thing is not necessarily connected to the fact that humans like to find patterns and decode things. If something had some intense scrutiny is because there was an actual problem to be solved (lost biography of a skilled author) or a prize (the hare jewel story), not necessarily because of "awe". The human brain likes puzzles and patterns and mistery and things to be found, that's it. What this whole lecture says (I think) is that easter eggs are nice and part of game design is making the player find things by solving puzzles. Other than that seems like filler or far fetched connections to me.

[@misutie]

I'm not gonna be pretentious and say you missed the point because the presentation is bound to not hit everyone the same way. I believe the theme of "awe" is consistent once you pick pieces of each story to understand what he meant by the word: all stories involve a certain "type" of awe, and they all have different outcomes and scenarios surrounding them. The Masquerade presents a scenario where there is no current mystery anymore, as the story is already solved. If you're human and didn't know what happened to the jewel then, chances are, you probably looked it up. The statement before the recalling of the hare story being about Psalm 46 having two possible outcomes: a coincidence, or not. The hare was subject of "awe" and attention, while *not* being a coincidence. The eclipse is subject of "awe" and attention, *because* it is a (huge) coincidence. The Shakespeare mystery remains to be the unsolved one, that incites "awe" (a feeling which for some, if not most people, is simply called curiosity). The script is told in a strange order that isn't immediately clear, and considering the nature of "The witness" and it's presentations of perspectives it makes "sense" to be structured that way(?) However, the Bach segment is probably the most important bit of the entire audio: how "awe" is a such a massive driving force for people, regardless of how you call or define it. It's not possible to simplify it down to concepts like curiosity, peace of mind or self satisfaction, purely. They're "awe-some" things because they incite powerful, driving emotions. If you want to think how this works in game design, it's not difficult to recall certain minor "awesome" things found in them: pannenkoek's "half A press" video on Super Mario 64, Vaatividya's Dark souls lore series, the mystery and urban legend of the "game" Polybius or even just most of the favorite games in your own head that baffle you on how they keep you reeled in to their mysteries. You're not wrong by saying that the intense scrutiny is product of a problem or mystery needing to be solved, but it's wrong to say it's not part of "awe". You'll only attempt to solve or accomplish something if it made you interested for one reason or another. For all those awe inspiring things subject to investigation, the outcome could be something awesome (a completed puzzle, an answer or a tangible reward)... or awful (a waste of patience, time and/or sanity). I've listened to this audio about three times in the span of a few months and for the point it seems to be making, Vsauce's "Why are things creepy" clicked me better to drive the point home when he briefly talks about the emotion itself and comments how we were never really good at giving names to powerful experiences, hence how naming/labelling it could ironically make it harder to understand; although it's simply a tangent that isn't linked to game design at all. **TL DR:** I'm atleast fairly certain that one of the points Moriarty was trying to make is that as an art form, games have the same awe inspiring potential as something like the works of shakespeare; we just haven't seen it at quite the same scale (maybe due to it not being a frequent conscious effort in game development as much as tradition is).

[@lumr-zq7xy]

从33不是山山过来的

[@Northstar-Media]

Does Witness have any connection with Jehovah?

[@radradder]

So the title derives from an occurrence in a common english translation of the bible. Where, the words 'shake' and 'spear' appears (hint: its about shakespeare. Or atleast shakespeare is the main case study on 'awe'). Why is that awesome appearing in a spiritual book? Something, that obviously wasn't in the original. The "secret" existing in only 1 common english translation highlights it's insignificance. I like the synapses this video gives: awesome are obvious. But shakespeare and the bible are not intuitively awesome to me. The rational of them being impactful on the language seems sketchy criteria for them being "awesome" since language is something that has always existed and will always exist perfectly well without particular work (just different/more words to say the same thing). So their impact is limited to allowing some words rhythm versus others, interesting but "awesome" seem stretching. It's also interesting that shakespeare wrote far more educated works than any of her peers. But this seems more like a quiz thing than "awesome". As, modern writers have more knowledge available to them. Those were the only points mentioned to why shakespeare (and the bible in passing) is "awesome". This talk is pretty good if you take things casually. It also has a neat meta satire vibe to it, with the speaker knowingly buying into the same misplace beliefs that awe brings, that the speaker warns about. But it takes a long time to say very little. And relies on the listener sharing biases with the speaker.

[@Zamzummin]

Both Shakespeare's works and the King James bible are considered highly influential works of art, philosophy, and the epitomes of western culture. To imply that there's nothing awesome about either of these or to doubt their influence on the western world, language, and history is basically to deny that our current status and culture have come to be as a direct result of these influences. The speaker is essentially saying that the world might be a very different place without these two works. And to think that perhaps there might be a secret connection between them, or even that both were perhaps written by the same person, is something fascinating or at least worth pondering for a moment. Think about it: how a person whose true identity has been lost to time might actually be the most influential person in the history of the western world and yet nobody realizes it.

[@churchianity]

I think there is also an encoded warning. Brian is clearly not pro-numerology, or atleast he sets himself up to not be pro-numerology or conspiracy when he speaks about the nut-job talking about the satanic origins of Santa Claus. I think one meta-commentary here is just that truth-seeking, in particular when relating to secrets and hidden things, can lead to madness. Or perhaps just that this truth-seeking is endlessly compelling to people, and there's no value-judgment present (madness is obviously a negative value judgement).@@Zamzummin

[@jsrodman]

The suggestion here is the King James Bible was a contemporary work to Shakespeare here, so someone might have been having fun when creating it. That it is specific to that translation doesn't reduce the fun suggestion. No one is suggesting that this coincidence was planned for back in the torah etc. But in context, this lecture is laying it out as yet another example of mining order from chaos; finding coincidencdes and assigning them meaning. It's not meant to be significant except for the significance we bring to the coincidence.

[@rogers7984]

The irony of spending 40 minutes criticizing conspiracy theories only to spend the rest of the "lecture" presenting your own theory with evidence that can be disproven in all of 5 minutes of research. The 46th word from the end in the KJV is "in" if you want an easy refutation of this. Then again he gave the real answer in his next sentence"... it is not".

[@APaleDot]

It is if you ignore the "Selah" at the end of the psalm.

[@jsrodman]

Whoosh.

[@KOilithyia]

Sounds like a creepy pasta

[@OldyAlbert]

Story of the Witness: "Hello, i'm JoBlo and i'd like for you to listen to quotes and speeches that i personally like". Fuck creating world and stories, let's just take old youtube videos and old quoutes from wikipedia and put it in the game. Brilliant. Great game as a game tho. Also not a comment on the quality of the speech.

[@OldyAlbert]

Pretty Pretty Pretty Good It mostly doesn't matter that they are old and it's far from the main point. It just add a little bit more to pretentiousness of game's "story" that i was trying to point out.

[@00101zero]

Just so you know this was recorded specifically for the game.

[@forcefield6973]

You should try to connect the ideas described in the videos and audios to the environment around them. You would be surprised at how much more the game hides in this regard. It's all about perspective (not only visual, but intellectual perspective).

[@forcefield6973]

The original talk was given in 2002.

[@ubertoaster99]

Couldn't agree more, Ole Gerko. Love the mechanics of the game and the world, but the quotes, speeches - everything remotely 'human' in the game - absolute pretentious garbage.

[@WhyIsYoutubeSoTerrible]

why the fuck was this in the witness? punishment for finishing the time attack puzzle? jesus

[@TheDownToEarthMan]

I found this pretty interesting. I was pretty content with this as the final reward.

[@oscarsalesgirl296]

Lol i liked listening to it because I eat up conspiracies. But I find it hilarious that someone didnt enjoy it :) makes me happy when people are honest, even about something I dig

[@georged8644]

Here you go... kzbin.info/www/bejne/eH3CaX98rpJ4q9E

[@Northstar-Media]

Jesus is the right answer

[@Northstar-Media]

William Shakespeare was not one man it would be too easy to silence one man. Shakespeare was an amalgamation of scholars artists, or it all could be divine coincidence or masquerade

[@TheNemeton]

This was not satisfying.

[@catninja909]

The Nemeton probably because you didnt unlock it in the game

[@_Pike]

I pity those who are not willing to learn

[@themaskedman9250]

nah, pretentions nonsence

[@jsrodman]

What is the pretense? What is it pretending and what it is it really? I think you'll find that it is exactly what it presents as .

[@johnboe1670]

some of the information in this video is incorrect. an easy example is attributing the word "glow" to william shakespeare, which the word has germanic roots. this non-informative video is just some dude talking about subjects that dont connect and tie into each other in any way, they only have the similarity of cryptography. **edit** he ends with a stupid pointless story about a grave, someone buries a magnet, then goes back and buries something with a dumb phrase on it. the end. the most intelligent part of this near hour waste of time is that he allegedly found the magnet with a compass.

[@Tpoleful]

I looked at the final story in the transcript for about 10 minutes to find out why he put it in and its meaning. At first, I thought the guy in the story was trying to deceive others by tricking people who excavate the container in the future. But, then I realized, I just put an interpretation on it that probably nobody other than me made out. Just like the guys in his lecture made things out of the Bible and Shakespeare. The story is nonsense unless you make things out of it. Now, of course, you did not get the lecture and so, the final story would be the most nonsensical part about it for you since, it Literally is nonsense. And, the point the guy is trying to give is that, 'If you look hard enough on an art piece or a collection of them, you will probably find things that the author didn't originally meant to be there (But you'll think they're put there by the author on purpose).' I hope that makes sense. I'm not very good at explaining things. Or English for that matter.

[@skuibler9042]

the something with the dumb phrase on it was the box that held the gold rabbit that everyone searched for.

[@johnboe1670]

I feel like this was just something done intentionally to entertain conspiracy theorists. I would do something like that. I would print a large book, then go back and alter it to hide messages and other things. then, like 2 or 3 codes deep, I wiuld encode "there are no hidden codes, especially never in hidden codes." and I would sleep peacefully at night with the stolen sleep of countless hundreds of superstitious people who find meaning in pattern and coincidences. the most rewarding part would be learning about all the hidden things found in the document by coincidence and not ones I went back and intentionally manipulated. so, whenever you go to find hidden meanings in things, remember people like me are real. we really do these things, and they are really fun, and yes really for the troll of it. trolling wasn't invented with the internet, it is a specific human behavioral characteristic that has been present in them for hundreds of thousands of years

[@HAL_NlNETH0USAND]

'non-informative' i had to lol outloud and rip in pieces with 'nerdly efficiency'. I hear your rage though. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

[@nicvac96]

it's the gold rabbit dude..